Anna M. Scheyett
Professor, LCSW
Anna Scheyett is Professor and former dean of the School of Social Work. Her area of research focuses on the supports vulnerable populations may need in order to live successfully in the community. Initially, her work explored community-based services for adults with severe mental illnesses. Given the overrepresentation of adults with mental illness in the criminal justice system, her scholarship led her to examine the overlap of mental health and legal systems and policies, looking at psychiatric advance directives and at re-entry from incarceration. More recently she has developed a research agenda looking at the elevated rates of suicide in farmers in the US, and at farmer stress more broadly.
Scheyett is a past Editor in Chief for the journal Social Work and is a consulting editor for Social Work Research and the Journal of Social Work Education. She has served in numerous leadership roles, including serving as a member of the North Carolina and national boards of the National Association of Social Workers, as a member of the board of the St. Louis Group for social work research, and as a member of the Board of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work. In 2020 Scheyett was inducted as a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers. Her recognitions also include the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Eli Lilly Foundation’s “Heroes in the Fight” award, which recognizes contributions to mental health care; mentor recognition by the Council on Social Work Educations’ Commission on Women, selection as a Distinguished Lecturer, State of the Science, Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety; and selection as a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research.
Since July 2022, Scheyett has held a joint appointment as Professor and Extension Specialist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication. There she coordinates the Extension Behavioral Health Team and writes a weekly blog on rural stress and stress management, Thriving on the Farm.
